PROJECT

The Seminar Building at Evergreen State College was the first publicly funded educational facility in Washington State to earn a LEED Gold certification.Sited between five closely spaced buildings with minimal footprints, the landscape concept has three primary objectives: to adjoin the project to a restored woodland edge, to celebrate water in all areas of the landscape and to create a range of outdoor learning and gathering spaces. Precipitation gathered from the building’s impermeable surfaces is returned to the site and utilized in a variety of ways.Studies of the site and building were coordinated to capture on-site infiltration, reduce water consumption in the landscape and utilize on-site water to nurture vegetation. Roof runoff is picked up at several points and directed to the site via gutters, runnels, and swales. At the north side of the site, a long curvilinear swale connects and defines two courtyards, terminating in an ephemeral pool. At the south edge, linear runnels bring stormwater to basins at the forest edge, with connections to overland drainage as needed.